Strategic Planning for Digital Ministry

 

Your weekend experience is no longer the front door—your digital ministry strategy is. Welcome to the hybrid church of the future.

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Are you unsure how to move from just putting your usual service online to actually creating a digital experience and successful strategy designed to reach new people?

 

If you don’t know where to start, how to grow your church’s digital “front door,” what to measure, or how to keep your existing congregation connected to the church, then you’re in the right place.

Our strategic planning process for digital ministry will help you get it right.

Assess your ministry’s online service experience
Clarify your church’s digital engagement path and strategies
Create the team structure and action plans to apply an integrated digital ministry strategy
Learn what to measure to evaluate your strategy’s effectiveness over time

We work with you to create a Digital Engagement Path to build clarity around how people best connect with your church online.

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What is a Digital Engagement Path?

 

Tony Morgan gives a brief overview in this excerpt from our recent masterclass, 4 Keys to Expanding Your Church’s Front Door with Digital Strategies.

Download a Sample Digital Engagement Path
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You engage our strategic planning process for digital ministry in two phases.

The Planning Phase

In the first 3 months, you complete 3 facilitated planning sessions, as well as analysis and data-driven reports on ministry health, online experience, staffing and structure.

Digital Ministry Health Assessment

Your team gets an unbiased perspective on your current online service experience, as well as a clear assessment of your current needs related to online strategy. This becomes a roadmap for where to strategically place your focus.

  • Clarify the current reality
  • Analyze the objective metrics
  • Assess your online experience
  • Identify real opportunities

Strategic Planning

You confirm who you’re trying to reach, build a clear digital engagement path, and build a metrics dashboard to help you monitor and measure effectiveness—all within the first 90 days.

  • Find Alignment on Your Hybrid Church Approach
  • Clarify Your Mission Field
  • Define the Digital Engagement Path and Strategies
  • Build a System to Monitor Church Health (Clarify What’s Important to Measure)
  • Build Action Plans, Systems & Structures

Staffing & Structure Review

You structure your staff to lead a hybrid church (digital and in-person ministry strategies) for the long-haul.

  • Assess individual strengths and group dynamics
  • Clarify decision rights
  • Identify team strengths and challenges
  • Assess staff leadership capacity and potential
  • Plan the restructure and evaluate impact

The Implementation & Follow Through Phase

The Implementation & Follow Through Phase begins in the 4th month and includes consulting and accountability for the ministry team as you execute your strategic plan.

Execute the plan

Get the support and accountability your team needs to execute the plan:

  • Access to the full Unstuck Learning Hub for your whole team, including our digital ministry strategies tools and masterclasses
  • Quarterly progress check-in sessions
  • All-access via email between sessions

Refresh your vision

Your leadership team develops the rhythms to continually take your next steps towards sustained health.

  • Put plans into action
  • Measure progress
  • Refresh priorities
  • Maintain alignment

A late 2020 Barna study found less than 50% of Gen Z and Millennials prefer worship services that are primarily offered in-person in the future.

This process will engage and align your leadership team around the same vision, strategies and clear next steps.

It’s time to shift away from defining your digital ministry strategies as putting your services online and to start thinking about how to really connect with people outside the church and the faith, and how to better engage with people who are already connected to your church.

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Clarify your digital ministry strategy.